Project Freedom

Project Freedom

Developers
	CI Games
Publishers
North America	Merscom
Engines
	Impact 2
Release dates
Windows	November 9, 2004

Starmageddon
Project Earth: Starmageddon	2002
Project Freedom	2004

Key points

Also known as Space Interceptor in North America and Starmageddon 2 in some other countries.

Motion blur only works on some newer versions of the game (e.g. French, German, and Italian versions on Steam)

General information

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail
Green Man Gaming
Humble Store
itch.io
Steam

The DRM on the Steam version is sort of weird. The outer DRM on the executable is Steam DRM, and the inner DRM is an odd hand-written-assembly wrapper with a disabled disc check. In any case, the actual game EXE is not encrypted and can be extracted and run without Steam.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete/rename video files[citation needed]
Go to <path-to-game>\movies\ Delete or rename csati.mpg, cscda.mpg, and cs000.mpg. Notes Steam version does not have cscda.mpg.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\City Interactive\Project Freedom
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/34810/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Project Freedom savegames\
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/34810/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video settings

Options and Controls.

Widescreen resolution

Using a non 4:3 resolution will cause stretching.

Widescreen resolutions cannot be set in-game. You must do it through the Registry.

Set video mode via Registry[citation needed]
Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\City Interactive\Project Freedom\V4D Direct3D Renderer. Change Width to the width you want, Height to the height you want, ColorBits to the bit depth you want, and Frequency to the refresh frequency of your monitor (0 for default).

Windowed

This game has no native windowed support.

An unofficial patch has been made to run the game in windowed mode.

Install windowed patch

Go to the installation folder. Back up projectfreedom.exe Download and unzip this file to the installation folder. Make sure the three files in the archive appear in the same folder as projectfreedom.exe. If you're using the retail version of the game, rename projectfreedom.exe to projectfreedom.dat. If you're using the Steam version of the game, start the game. Run patch.cmd. You may have to run it with administrator privileges if you are on Windows Vista or later. If you are using the Steam version of the game, the game will be ended to facilitate the patching process. Delete patch.cmd, bspatch.exe, and pf_window_patch.patch if you'd like. If you're using the retail version and did a rename, the patching process may leave behind projectfreedom.dat, which may be deleted. Notes This patch only works on the English version of the game. To restore full-screen mode, you will have to restore your backed up projectfreedom.exe.

Audio settings

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Polish
Russian
French
German
Italian

Issues unresolved

Sound replay on hitch

If the game hitches, the audio engine will periodically replay a small portion of sound about a second or so back. The problem disappear after a level change or reloading a savegame.

Issues fixed

Game crashes due to missing codecs

The game may crash on Windows Vista and later because it can't decode the movies properly. This issue manifests itself as sudden exiting after seeing the menu loading screen.

This can be fixed by either using a dummy mpeg.dll or removing the video files.

Install dummy mpeg.dll
Use the dummy mpeg.dll.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows

Showing frame rate

You can show frame rate while in-game by enabling cheats (type "TIPS" at any time; don't mind the pause menu popping up) and pressing F.

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	98, 2000, ME, XP		98, 2000, ME, XP
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 700 MHz		1600 MHz Athlon XP or P4 class
System memory (RAM)	256 MB		256 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	420 MB		420 MB
Video card (GPU)	ATI Radeon 7500 Nvidia GeForce 2 32 MB of VRAM		ATI Radeon 9500 PRO Nvidia GeForce 5600FX 64 MB of VRAM